Legislative victory launched legacy of patient advocacy

Former Del.Mary T. Christian was in at the birth of the Patient Advocate Foundation in 1996, after she sponsored a 1994 bill in the General Assembly that triggered its subsequent work. She served on its inaugural board and has "retained a sisterly connection" with Nancy Davenport-Ennis ever since. "She's just a remarkable person, a great lady," says Christian.

A former delegate to the General Assembly from Hampton, Christian describes how the foundation got started. It was Black History Month, and the Daily Press wrote a human-interest story about the legislator. Davenport-Ennis, an English teacher at Bethel High, shared the article with her students and had them write to Christian. "She had decided to have her class study contemporaries instead of the past," says Christian, who duly wrote back to the students.

The women, who did not know each other, then met for lunch. Davenport-Ennis told Christian she needed help and enlisted her as the sponsor for a bill requiring insurance companies in Virginia to cover bone marrow transplants for breast cancer patients. It was the treatment that her friend Cheryl Grimmel needed and could not afford.

"Did she (Davenport-Ennis) tell you about the fundraiser she had, raising $175,000 for her?" Christian inquires.

The bill had failed to pass the General Assembly for successive years, defeated by intense lobbying from the insurance companies. Their representatives argued that the treatment was still experimental and that covering it would raise insurance premiums excessively.

"It was seen as 'a women's bill,' " says Christian, so she and Davenport-Ennis formulated a strategy. They did the research and discovered that the increased costs would actually be 7.5 cents a day.

Christian contacted every male legislator personally and asked them about their families — their mothers, wives, daughters, nieces — and then showed them the statistics on how many women in Virginia would be diagnosed with breast cancer that year. "It personalized it," she says. Davenport-Ennis also chaired a statewide task force, "a real grassroots effort." Christian recalls with a chuckle one legislator who'd been firmly opposed, saying: "Mary, call off the dogs. I will sign your bill." The vote was 99 to 1 in favor. "I will never forget that day," she says.

Christian describes Davenport-Ennis as "a person of vision." After their legislative victory, "Nancy said 'if we can do that in our legislature, wouldn't it be great if we could do it in other states?' " The foundation went on to introduce similar legislation in 17 states and to secure coverage for federal employees. "At the beginning, she worked gratis. She did everything herself. She never accepted a penny until she'd used up her savings. She had the tenacity, the passion, being a cancer survivor herself. Finally, the board decided we needed to give her at least some compensation," says Christian, who has remained involved with PAF over the years.

A few years ago, looking at the end-of-year report, Christian noticed that in the pie chart showing people who'd taken advantage of the foundation's services, there were two little slivers: African-Americans and Hispanics. "Those are the groups with the greatest disparities in health care," she says. So, Nancy asked her if she'd coordinate a program to target those groups and make them aware of the services available to them. Now there's a national outreach program in place for both groups.